The Age, Volume 24, Number 9, September 2001 Page: 1 of 2
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THE AGE
Established at Houston, May 15, 1871 by
D.L. McGary. Moved to Wallisville March
15, 1897. Discontinued in 1908.
Reestablished by the Wallisville Heritage
Park, December 1,1979. $1.68 per paper;
$20.00 for one-year subscription.
Wallisville Heritage Park
P.O. Box 16
Wallisville, Texas 77597
THE BEAUMONT ENTERPRISE
November 5,1984
Progeny Take Pride
In Pirate Tradition
By Jack Barnett and
Teresa Stepzinski
COVE -A rogue with the qualities of
a hero, he was a shrewd businessman
who just happened to be a privateer -
a daring smuggler ready for any fight
that served his cause.
Pirate Jean Laffite remains just as
mysterious in death as he was elusive
in life. Between 1816 and 1821, he
prowled the fog-shrouded, twisting
bayous near Cove, Lake Charlotte
and Anahuac during forays from his
Galveston Island pirate base.
Along with his older brother Pierre,
Laffite and their captains plundered 71
ships, capturing 37 Spanish, 24 British
and eight other vessels in the Gulf of
Mexico. Some local folk call him a
scoundrel, while others say he was a
patriot. But above all else, Laffite was
a gentleman many Chambers County
residents still admire.
"He was a gentleman, but he was
also a privateer. When he gave orders
he expected to be obeyed, but he was
of high character he expected to be
obeyed, treated his crew fairly and, by
the standards of his day, he was a
good man," says Kendon Clark,
whose ancestor served as cabin boy
aboard Laffite’s personal flagship.
CHARLES NATHAN TILTON
A local historian and author, Clark,
42, of Cove, is a descendant of
Charles Nathan Tilton who served
with Laffite and his band of 600 to
1,000 privateers for several years
before settling on the banks of Old
River with other "Laffite veterans.
“Most of us are proud to be
descendants of Laffite veterans,"
Clark says.
Although Laffite died about 130
years ago, his legacy lives on in the
memories of his crewmembers'
descendants, and the countless tales
of buried treasure and wrecked ships
resting on the bottom of area bayous,
and lakes.
Laffite carried letters of marque
from the United States, Spain and
Britain commissioning him to attack
each countries' enemies, says Robert
L. Schaadt, director of the Sam
Houston Regional Library and
Research Center in Liberty, which
boasts the only collection of Laffite
artifacts in Southeast Texas.
"At the time, he worked for whom-
ever he wanted," Schaadt says. "He
did whatever benefited his own
fortune."
The booty included Spanish dou-
bloons and pieces of eight, jewelry,
Aztec and Inca gold from Mexico,
religious icons, precious gems and
slaves bound for the auction block.
THE WAR OF 1812
“They were 'very good merchants.
They never thought of themselves as
pirates. That was their way of life,"
says County Clerk Norma Rowland,
whose ancestors fought along with
Laffite in the War of 1812.
Clark and Rowland say historians
might argue about Laffite's character,
but little doubt exists that his bravery,
cunning and fleet of 40 warships
influenced the American victory over
England in the Battle of New Orleans.
“He always considered the Ameri-
cans his friends and rarely attacked
any of their ships," Clark says.
"Considering the number of men and
ships at his command, it would have
made all the difference if he pitched in
with the British."
Rowland says Laffite had many
friends in Chambers County who
helped him rebuild his fleet after
American troops destroyed his pirate
empire on Barataria Bay near New
Orleans.
Rowland says the smuggler in
Laffite appreciated the county's
countless secluded coves, plentiful
fresh water and timber, and reputation
for having good ship builders. She
says Col. James Bowie bought slaves
from Laffite in Galveston and took
them to Magnolia Grove, now White’s
Memorial Park near Anahuac, to
domesticate before selling them in the
profitable slave market.
"The people who settled Texas
weren't all Sunday school teachers.
They were tough. They had to be,"
she says. "Everyone could do his
own thing as long as he didn't do it to
them. If they (residents) could make a
buck off of him, they would do it."
FOOD AND BURIED
TREASURE
Laffite, the businessman who sold
his stolen cargo to the highest bidder,
often went out of his way to give
much-needed food and supplies to
isolated settlers, say Clark and
Rowland.
Forced to abandon his Galveston
Island sanctuary in 1821, after he
raided the Louisiana coast and
scuttled an American ship, Laffite
supposedly left buried treasure and
several shipwrecks in his wake.
ALLIGATOR BAYOU
Kendon Clark remembers his
grandfather's tales of Laffite and an
unsuccessful search for the privateer's
treasure buried in old Alligator Bayou
near Cotton Lake.
'When my daddy was a boy,
somewhere between 1910 or 1915,
two men came down from 'up country’
with an old map, looking for somebody
who knew Lawrence Marsh real well,"
Clark says.
"They told my grandfather [William
Clark] that gold was buried on a little
island just east of The Forks in
Alligator Bayou and spent two or three
days looking for it, but never found
anything and gave up."
Clark says his father, Manson,
forgot the men and their treasure hunt
until about 1920. While checking trap
lines out in the marsh, Manson Clark
sat down to rest on a small knoll about
a foot above the water and recalled
the search, he says.
"He went back one day and started
walking west from the island and
found part of the bayou that had been
filled in," Clark says.
"He was convinced that was the
earlier course of Alligator Bayou and
that was why the men couldn't find the
treasure."
Clark says although his father
stumbled upon the key to a possible
treasure, he never went back to look
for it.
"I'm convinced Laffite buried the
gold around here, but 90 percent of it
will never be found," he says. "People
still look for it, but so far nobody's
found anything."
Clark says "The Pride," flagship of
Laffite's treasure fleet, now rests I
beneath the murky waters of Lake
Charlotte. A popular legend says the
three-masted schooner and its
“bearskins full of gold doubloons and
pieces of eight" sank in the old Trinity
River channel at Trinity Bay.
THE SUNKEN SHIP
Legends say the ship sank in 1821
as Laffite fled Galveston Island with
American warships in hot pursuit.
Laffite abandoned "The Pride" after
sailing up through Trinity Bay into the
old river channel when it become
mired in the mud.
Lorraine Silva, 88, of Wallisville,
who learned of the legends from her
uncle A. L. Beason, said people in
Chambers County accepted Laffite “as
long as he left them alone."
Silva says Laffite wasn't always the
chivalrous gentleman local legends
portray.
He reportedly blindfolded and
forced Cassandra Deye Van
Pradelles, a New Orleans socialite, to
walk the plank after abducting her
from a ship bound for Baltimore, Md.
Her trunk and other personal
belongings later were reportedly
discovered at Laffite’s stronghold.
But time soon ran out for Laffite,
who felt the wrath of American naval
commanders who issued him an
ultimatum to leave Galveston Island or
die.
When he came to Galveston it was
'bam,' he's here and running the
place, and a lot of accounts say he left
the same way," Clark says.
His men just packed up and sailed
away. No one knows what happened
to them.
Some say he went to the Yucatan
and died, but most like to think he just
sailed into the sunset. It adds to the
romance."
Schaadt says Laffite returned from
the Yucatan and spent the rest of his
"life wandering through French com-
munities along the Mississippi River
under assumed names.
History probably will remain kind to
Laffite, he says.
'Was he a hero or villain? Probably
a little bit of both," Schaadt says. "He
never considered himself as a pirate.
He was a businessman."
HISTORICAL NOTES
The article printed above is a very
interesting account of some of the
legends surrounding Jean Laffite and
his reported exploits here in Cham-
bers County. As is the case with
many legends, some of them do not
match up with the historical records.
The disappearance of Cassandra
Van Pradelles in 1815 is generally
said to have been the work of pirates,
although no one has substantiated
who was actually responsible for her
death. Cassandra disappeared while
sailing from Baltimore to New Orleans
in 1815. Another prominent woman,
Thedosia Burr, the daughter of former
vice president Aaron Burr, was also
said to have been on the same ship
and to have suffered the same fate.
Local historian Jean Epperson, who
has been an active member of the
Laffite Society for several years, has
done a great amount of research on
Laffite’s life and exploits. Her re-
search suggests there is a ship sunk
in Lake Charlotte, and that it may
even have been a pirate ship, but she
does not believe it was one of Laffite’s
ships.
The legends surrounding Laffite are
not confined solely to this county.
They range all of the way from New
Orleans, across the Gulf Coast, and
probably as far west as Matagorda
County. The legends, however, tell us
that the name of Jean Laffite, his
brother Pierre, and their compatriots
at Galveston Island will always have a
hold on our collective imagination.
They’ll always linger among the myths
and legends of Chambers County.
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Wallisville Heritage Park (Organization). The Age, Volume 24, Number 9, September 2001, periodical, September 2001; Wallisville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth861349/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Chambers County Library System.